Deposed President Viktor Yanukovych speaks to journalists in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Photo: Alexander Nemenov, AFP/Getty Images

Deposed President Viktor Yanukovych speaks to journalists in the...

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Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend the presentation ceremony of the top military brass in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 28, 2014. Russia's president says Ukraine could regain some arms and equipment of military units in Crimea that did not switch their loyalty to Russia. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)

Ukraine's fugitive leader pushed Friday for a vote to determine the status of each of the country's regions - a call serving the Kremlin's purpose of turning Ukraine into a loosely knit federation.

The statement from Viktor Yanukovych, the former president who fled to Russia last month after three months of protests, raised the threat of more unrest in Ukraine's Russian-speaking eastern provinces, where many resent the new Ukrainian government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Obama to discuss a U.S. proposal for solving the crisis, and they agreed that top U.S. and Russian diplomats should work on details.

Also Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Putin that the Ukrainian military withdrawal from Crimea was complete. Ukrainian soldiers were seen carrying duffel bags and flags as they shipped out of the Black Sea peninsula that Russia has annexed.

While Yanukovych has practically no leverage in Ukraine, his statement clearly reflected the Kremlin's focus on supporting separatist sentiments in eastern Ukraine.

The White House said that Putin called Obama Friday to discuss a U.S. proposal for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, which Secretary of State John Kerry presented to Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov earlier this week. Obama suggested that Russia put a concrete response in writing and the presidents agreed that Kerry and Lavrov would meet to discuss the next steps.

"President Obama noted that the Ukrainian government continues to take a restrained and de-escalatory approach to the crisis and is moving ahead with constitutional reform and democratic elections, and urged Russia to support this process and avoid further provocations, including the buildup of forces on its border with Ukraine," the White House said in a statement.

A White House official, said Obama and Putin spoke for an hour. The Kremlin said in its account of the conversation that Putin talked about action by extremists in Ukraine and suggested "possible steps by the international community to help stabilize the situation" in Ukraine. Deep divisions between Ukraine's Russian-speaking eastern regions, where many favor close ties with Moscow, and the Ukrainian-speaking west, where most want to integrate into Europe, continue to fuel tensions.